Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the members for their contributions. In response to Deputy Munster, there is legislation in the pipeline to break up the IAA. That is obviously a matter of independence. It is at an early stage but it will happen.

Fingal County Council has considerable expertise already, although it does not have all the expertise. It has a considerable amount of expertise in various skills that will be necessary for the competent authority. The Deputy spoke about the need for safeguards. The Deputy is right, but there are safeguards in the regulation, in EU law and in the fact that at all stages the noise regulator and An Bord Pleanála will be carrying out public consultations. There is a right of appeal if one is not happy with Fingal's decision and ultimately there is a right to judicial review. We have an enormous number of safeguards.

On the issue raised by Deputy Coppinger, I am sure she is right that the EPA fulfils some of the functions, and it does extraordinarily good work, but it does not fulfil others. It appears that, comprehensively, Fingal County Council fulfils more at present. There were meetings. We will resolve that problem for the Deputy. The people from my Department who are dealing with this met with the EPA. They will sort out the issue of whether there should have been or were records or not.